alignment_of

template <class T>
struct alignment_of : public integral_constant<std::size_t, ALIGNOF(T)> {};

Inherits: Class template alignment_of inherits from integral_constant<std::size_t, ALIGNOF(T)>, where ALIGNOF(T) is the alignment of type T.

Note: strictly speaking you should only rely on the value of ALIGNOF(T) being a multiple of the true alignment of T, although in practice it does compute the correct value in all the cases we know about.

Header: #include <boost/type_traits/alignment_of.hpp> or #include <boost/type_traits.hpp>

Examples:

alignment_of<int> inherits from integral_constant<std::size_t, ALIGNOF(int)>.

alignment_of<char>::type is the type integral_constant<std::size_t, ALIGNOF(char)>.

alignment_of<double>::value is an integral constant expression with value ALIGNOF(double).

alignment_of<T>::value_type is the type std::size_t.

Important

	Important
Visual C++ users should note that MSVC has varying definitions of "alignment". For example consider the following code: typedef long long align_t; assert(boost::alignment_of<align_t>::value % 8 == 0); align_t a; assert(((std::uintptr_t)&a % 8) == 0); char c = 0; align_t a1; assert(((std::uintptr_t)&a1 % 8) == 0); In this code, even though `boost::alignment_of<align_t>` reports that `align_t` has 8-byte alignment, the final assert will fail for a 32-bit build because `a1` is not aligned on an 8 byte boundary. Note that had we used the MSVC intrinsic `__alignof` in place of `boost::alignment_of` we would still get the same result. In fact for MSVC alignment requirements (and promises) only really apply to dynamic storage, and not the stack.

Visual C++ users should note that MSVC has varying definitions of "alignment". For example consider the following code:

typedef long long align_t;
assert(boost::alignment_of<align_t>::value % 8 == 0);
align_t a;
assert(((std::uintptr_t)&a % 8) == 0);
char c = 0;
align_t a1;
assert(((std::uintptr_t)&a1 % 8) == 0);

In this code, even though boost::alignment_of<align_t> reports that align_t has 8-byte alignment, the final assert will fail for a 32-bit build because a1 is not aligned on an 8 byte boundary. Note that had we used the MSVC intrinsic __alignof in place of boost::alignment_of we would still get the same result. In fact for MSVC alignment requirements (and promises) only really apply to dynamic storage, and not the stack.

Boost C++ Libraries

alignment_of